SSD in Mini?

[goodtimes5]

What do I need to know about installing a SSD into a Mini to use as a system drive for running Lion on? I'd use the HDD that comes with the Mini as data storage but put the OS and the apps on the SSD.

There are a ton of resources on various places online, but I'm looking for some real-world advice because I've seen that installing an OS on a SSD is a lot more difficult than expected. Any tips or guides I should know?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Installing an OS onto an SSD is not that difficult, it is actually the same difficulty as installing an OS onto the HDD.
You just format it properly and off you go, you just need to boot from the Lion recovery partition and select the properly formatted SSD as target. Or you clone the HDD to the SSD.

OS X Lion: About Lion Recovery
Lion Recovery Disk Assistant

How to format a new HDD to install Mac OS X onto (or make a bootable copy onto)​

 

[monsieurpaul]

What I did :

I reinstalled Mac OS with the 64 GB SSD as system drive and my previous 500 GB HDD as Data drive.

Extra clean install, all apps were reinstalled, all data were manually copied from my TM backUp.

In addition you'll need to do the following:
- Copy the user folder from SSD to HDD
- Associate the user folder on the HDD to your account (System settings > Users > right click on your
account for advanced options)
- DO NOT REMOVE the user folder on the SSD
- You should create an Admin account whose user folder will stay on the SSD in case the HDD fail.

 

[radiogoober]

What I did :

I reinstalled Mac OS with the 64 GB SSD as system drive and my previous 500 GB HDD as Data drive.

Extra clean install, all apps were reinstalled, all data were manually copied from my TM backUp.

In addition you'll need to do the following:
- Copy the user folder from SSD to HDD
- Associate the user folder on the HDD to your account (System settings > Users > right click on your
account for advanced options)
- DO NOT REMOVE the user folder on the SSD
- You should create an Admin account whose user folder will stay on the SSD in case the HDD fail.

Man, thank you for that post. I was about to ask how the whole folder layout works with a second drive, but it makes sense now that I see you can change where the home folder is.

So Applications & all OS files are on the SSD, and everything in ~ is on the HDD.

 

[philipma1957]

one more piece of advice try to get a 120gb or 128gb ssd. they are more money but if you ever want to install windows 7 and lion together the 128gb will come in handy.


decent deal here

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Crucial...ltDomain_0&hash=item2319e813ac#ht_3123wt_1189

 

[monsieurpaul]

So Applications & all OS files are on the SSD, and everything in ~ is on the HDD.

Exactly.

In addition, if you can't invest in a 128 GB SSD and still want Windows 7, you can install Bootcamp on the HDD. It works reliably, but of course it is slower than installing it on the SSD.

 

[kas23]

In terms of the installation, follow the ifixit guide step-by-step and you will not go wrong:

http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Installing-Mac-Mini-Mid-2011-Dual-Hard-Drive-Kit/6634/1

There is also a video that you can follow too. Be very careful with the IR sensor, many people have broke it during the installation.